A Hundred Things a Girl Can Make

Last month I was browsing the shelves of the Riverow Bookshop, a three-floor treasure of a used book store, when I happily discovered a small section on crafts. I have to admit, I scoffed a little when I looked up and saw the title on the spine of this book: A Hundred Things a Girl Can Make. It sounded quaint and chauvinistic, and what I expected to find inside was a craft book that glorified the domestic ideal.

When I opened the book, however, the illustrations drew me in. The influence of the Arts and Crafts style was clear, and I knew that this was not the average craft book. Although it's true that many of the projects in the book are related to sewing and the home, the emphasis of the book on design, creativity, and new materials would likely have appealed to the independent spirit of the "New Woman" of the Roaring Twenties. And, in fact, the book's style and emphasis are refreshingly modern.

In the preface, the authors criticize "the so-called 'art' needlework of the day" for providing girls with "little opportunity for invention or self-expression":

"She follows the standard set by the pattern she has purchased at the department store, and she devotes endless time and patience to the production of articles that should never have been imagined nor created!"

Instead, the authors encourage "The Girl" to go beyond just copying a pattern to become a creator. The projects in the book challenge young women's creativity by emphasizing art and design principles and by incorporating new methods (for example, tie dyeing and woodworking) and materials (felt, cardboard, wood, and modeling clay).

So, from the illustrations and the preface, I could tell that I had in my hands an important book. I was so intrigued by the designs that I had to find out more about the authors.

What I learned about the authors confirmed my guess about the book's importance. Hugo Froehlich and Bonnie Snow, both artists and art teachers, co-authored the book, which was published in 1922 by Lippincott. Through the many books they co-authored in the early decades of the 20th century--including the popular eight-volume series Text Books for Art Education (Prang Educational Company, 1905)--Froehlich and Snow were instrumental in professionalizing the teaching of art in public schools. They infused the design and handcraft ideals of the Arts and Crafts movement in all of their books.

The late 19th century witnessed the birth of art education as its own subject, and Froehlich and Snow were both in the thick of this movement. Froehlich taught in the Fine Arts department at Brooklyn's Pratt Institute, which was founded in 1887 to promote manual and industrial education. Froehlich started teaching there soon after the school's founding, and Snow was a Pratt graduate. Snow later went on to serve as Supervisor of Drawing in the public schools of Minneapolis, Minnesota, and director of Normal Training at the New York School of Fine and Applied Art.

As you can see from the folk elephant design on the door stop above and the organic, nature-inspired designs on the lamp and pin wheel, the projects in the book would not look at all out of place in an Etsy shop today. My daughter was very intrigued by the book, especially the chapter on woodworking projects, so the book's appeal seems to have weathered the changeover to the 21st century quite well. I'll be sharing more of the designs from the book in my next few posts.